Proton Holdings announced that it plans to expand production capacity at its newly-built new energy vehicle (NEV) plant at its Automotive High-Tech Valley (AHTV) manufacturing hub in Tanjung Malim, in the Malaysian state of Perak, as the country’s first national car company moves ahead with plans to “accelerate its electric vehicle ambitions.”
Proton confirmed that it plans to invest a further MYR 37 million (US$ 10 million) to double the plant’s annual production capacity from the current 20,000 vehicles to 42,000 units, to “fulfil both domestic demand and export opportunities, while also positioning it as a regional hub for NEV manufacturing within the Geely Group ecosystem.”
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China’s Geely Group, which has a 49.9% stake in Proton, is becoming an increasingly important strategic partner for the Malaysian automaker. The NEV plant became operational less than a year ago, initially producing the Geely-based e.MAS 7 battery electric vehicle (BEV), followed by the e.MAS 7 plug-in hybrid (PHEV) model. The facility recently added the smaller Geely-based e.MAS 5 BEV, after the model was initially imported from China.
Proton invested an initial MYR 82 million in the NEV plant, which it says was “designed as a highly flexible manufacturing hub, integrating advanced robotics, cloud-based production management, and Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, enabling the assembly of multiple vehicle models on a single line.”
Proton said in a statement: “The decision to accelerate the plant’s expansion has been driven by the exceptional market response to the Proton e.MAS line-up, which has quickly emerged as one of the strongest performers in Malaysia’s fast-growing EV segment.”
Proton revealed that it had sold a total of 11,617 NEVs in the first four months of the year, including 8,477 e.MAS 5 models and 3,140 e.MAS 7 and e.MAS 7 PHEV models.
